Balance of Food

Super Bowl XLIX food ad review

 

"It's time to take back control"

The most impressive food ad in Super Bowl XLIX might have been one where you were encouraged to manage your food.

Weight Watchers showed off food in a more beautiful fashion than any of the other food ads on the night.Super Bowl ads are designed to make you feel good, not show off food.

Whether you believe in the actual Weight Watchers program, the message is a good one. You have to eat, but you have to be in control. Great to deliver that in front of the Super Bowl audience.

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Guacamole comes from avocados. The Mexico avocados people ran a wonderful spot with a draft of icons for different countries. Australia drafts the kangaroo and Mexico gets avocados.

Former NFL players and current commentators Doug Flutie and Jerry Rice call the draft action in the commercial.

"Rich volcanic soil," said Flutie. "Perfect weather," said Rice. "Makes avocados from Mexico the ideal year-round snack."

Shows off the product well. Clever premise and writing. And avocados are good for you.

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Snickers took its celebrity campaign to new heights with Danny Trejo as Marcia Brady and Steve Buscemi as Jan Brady in a Brady Bunch takeoff.

Clever, especially building off its usual campaign. The candy bar has been able to market itself to being beyond a candy bar, difficult in that product category. You'd be better off eating a handful of peanuts but Snickers makes it more tempting to add chocolate, caramel, and nougat.

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McDonald's "Pay with Lovin'" sounds good, but has a long list of rules and rituals. There is also the potential unpleasantness of being told to call your mom and she's passed on.

You also have very little chance of being picked. And the doorway you enter the restaurant makes a big difference, though you don't know which doorway is the magic doorway of the moment.

The payoff, especially since dinner isn't covered, won't be that high.

Each restaurant gives away 100 prizes over the next 2 weeks. However, 35 of them are given away today (February 2), 20 on February 3, and 10 on February 7. 35 winners will be scattered through February 4-6, 8-14.

You have to go between 6 am and 6 pm. On February 8, there will be 0 prizes after 3 pm. In the final week, there is only 1 winner in each of the dayparts (except for the late afternoon on February 8): 6a-11a, 11a-3p, 3p-6p.

So go today or tomorrow and assume you will pay for your meal with money and without a sign of love. For the full and very complicated rules, click here.

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Coca-Cola had a really nice anti-bullying ad. We saw samples of Internet bullying. We saw a kid who gets a Facebook message that initially reads "No one likes U" then changes to "There's no one like U." #makeithappy

There is nothing about the product, but the message is worth saying.

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Doritos gave us a creepy guy who was saving the airline seat next to him for a pretty woman. The punchline is that she has a baby.

Cute enough by Doritos standards but pretty weak, especially in the big time of Super Bowl XLIX.

This ad was still more interesting than the "pigs who fly" ad that ran in the 2nd half. The kid works really hard to come up with a way for the pig to fly. A rocket strapped to the pig's back was much simpler than what was implied. Not a great ad.

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Skittles is barely food, but the candy had an ad that dealt with arm wrestling to decide who would get a yellow Skittles.

If you are going to arm wrestle, do so for a red or blue Skittles.

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video credit: Weight Watchers; Avocados from Mexico; McDonald's

Condiments heaven and hell, CFL style

A sports stadium isn't designed to be a place for gourmet food. Traditionally, dressing hot dogs is rather simple: a few basic ingredients is typically what you would find.

As we'll learn, there is an ideal way to dress a hot dog and, well, an attempt that needs a lot of improvement.

Let's start with how to dress a hot dog.

Toronto has a tradition of hot dog carts. The city's food truck scene isn't as developed as comparable other cities, but the hot dog is more definitely king, especially in the downtown core. So when Torontoians get a hot dog, they have plentiful options for dressing a hot dog.

So when fans of the MLB Toronto Blue Jays and CFL Toronto Argonauts fans go to Rogers Centre, they get great options for dressing a hot dog.

Hot peppers, jalapeno peppers, onions, relish, sauerkraut, greens, black olives, pickled red onions, salsa, and a few sauces.

Fancy mustards and relishes as well.

The classics are included as well.

The options at Rogers Centre rise above the level of the vendor carts. High praise given the great options on the hot dog carts.

Even at these hot dog vendor carts in the downtown area, you see onions, relish, sauerkraut, hot peppers, as well as ketchup, mustard, and other sauces.

On the other side of the glass is TD Place, brand new home of the CFL Ottawa RedBlacks, the league's newest franchise. The stadium is very nice looking, but as we'll see, they missed a step or two.

Ottawa's new TD Place is a beautiful stadium in a city that needed a great place to play Canadian football. The place is new, so there are some kinks to work out.

You might be excited by a relish container. I would have done too if you could get any relish from them. To be fair, I tried two different condiments areas at TD Place. Same results.

Ketchup, mustard, and relish were available in packets, the same packets you would find at fast food places and some high school football stadiums.

Ketchup and mustard are bad enough in packets, but they are liquid. Relish out of a packet is messier than it sounds.

No onions or any kind to be found. For those who don't put ketchup on hot dogs, your 2 choices are mustard and relish. Just hope your $4 hot dog is still hot by the time you get your hot dog dressed.

photos credit: me

Canadian food ads in the 2014 spring NHL Center Ice free preview

The food ads truly dominated the NHL Center Ice free preview — spring 2014 edition. There were some great ads for food in Canada.

To see the whole story, click here for the column from our sister blog, CanadianCrossing.com.

The following is a condensed version of that column, spotlighting the food ads.

Kraft Dinner is so iconic that selling Kraft Dinner can't be that easy. A talking horse in a field encouraging people to rediscover fun by eating macaroni. Sure why not.

The commercial is more entertaining than any U.S. version for the product.

The KFC Big Boss means business, which is why they use the Twisted Sister song from back in the 1980s. The sandwich is like a Big Mac, except with chicken. What? KFC has a chicken sandwich … with bread?

The commercial is rather lame, perhaps lamer than the sandwich. Cheese goes with beef but not always chicken. Burger King in the U.S. has a similar sandwich — Chicken Big King — but the KFC Big Boss is literally the Big Mac sandwich down to the smallest detail, but with chicken.

The idea of resisting authority to eat a lame chicken sandwich from a large organization is too ironic for words.

Boston Pizza is a casual dining place (which I still have not tried), and their ads are always amusing. The latest showed how good a brother and sister could be, knowing that would get a kids meal at Boston Pizza, complete with a build your own sundae.

That might make me behave better as an adult.

McDonald's Canada is good at advertising items that can't be found in the States. The boss in the ad is obsessed with steak and notices a McD's billboard for new items featuring steak on the menu. The Steak N Egg Bagel for breakfast and the Steak N Caesar Signature McWrap with bacon and Parmesan for lunch and dinner.

The boss points out to his assistant that he needs to track everything about steak yet misses this billboard outside the office.

We can debate about whether the assistant should count McDonald's in steak trends, the ad worked in telling us McDonald's is "obsessed" with steak.

The A&W guy is back, touting how they have the best burgers in Canada. Instead of his location being vague, we do see him near the Ottawa River.

This plays on the previous campaign about the sourcing of the beef that goes into A&W burgers. Though I don't speak highly of restaurant burgers in Canada, I still can't imagine they are the best burgers in Canada.

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I can now find Aero candy bars in the States in international aisles in grocery stores, but they are prominent in Canada. The mother ends up with tossled hair after eating an Aero bar, much to the surprise of her daughter. The play is how Aero candy bars make you feel young. Then again, kids can run off excess sugar easier than adults.

Tim Hortons, which just celebrated its 50th anniversary, now has a crispy chicken sandwich. You walk into a Tim Hortons and you see mostly donuts, just not in the ads.

video credit: Kraft Canada
photo credit: KFC Canada

What's Tempting: 2 smaller drinks

In a recent What's Tempting segment, you could be convinced to always get the larger size since you get more bang for the buck. Well, as hockey fans in Boise, Idaho found out, that isn't always true.

Paying $4 for a 16-oz. glass of beer seems unfair when you can get a whole 20-oz. glass of beer for $7 … until you find out that the same amount of beer fits in both glasses and those who order the larger size are paying $3 more for the same amount of beer.

The larger glasses were taller so it looked like you were getting more beer. But as we learned with the pizza example, your eyes can't tell the whole story.

Volume is the measurement of liquid and you can get the same amount of volume in a taller but thinner cup.

Previous coverage:

What's Tempting: Getting the larger pizza

The Idaho hockey arena story is similar to what happened at football stadiums in Seattle and Oakland in early 2011. In Seattle, the difference in beer prices was $6 for a 16 oz. beer and $7.25 for a 20 oz. beer. In Oakland, $5 bought you a 16 oz. beer while you had to pay $8 for a 20 oz. beer.

After having seen the Idaho video, and videos for the Seattle and Oakland examples, the cups and sizes in the three videos looked virtually alike.

The 20 oz. glasses in all 3 cases are taller and thinner. Volume is a ratio of radius of the base to the height of the glass. In non-math terms, you can have a cup with a taller height and a shorter base that can contain the same volume as a cup with a shorter height and a longer base.

The arenas are being charged more for the 20 oz. cups than the 16 oz. cups, though that total is literally pennies compared to the extra margin made off of the "large" beers sold in those scenarios.

An imperial British pint is just under 20 oz. while an American pint is 16 oz. This would be hilarious if this were the reason for the discrepancy, but highly unlikely.

Even with a lawsuit filed in the Idaho story, something similar will happen in the future where sizes don't reflect the reality of the serving. So how do you deal with this possibility as a consumer?

Ask to see the small and large cups in question. See them side by side. One cup will be taller but is it thinner? Don't look at them just straight on. Look at the mouths of both cups — after all, volume is a 3-dimensional measurement.

If you aren't sure, get the smaller size. In the Seattle case, the larger beer wasn't that much more in price (provided the sizes were accurate), but in the Oakland and Idaho instances, the price difference lent itself to the smaller sizes.

In the Idaho case, you could get 32 oz. of beer for $8 by purchasing 2 small beers vs. paying $7 for a 20 oz. beer. In the Oakland scenario, you would get 32 oz. of beer for $10 vs. 20 oz. for $8, a much better deal.

In those last 2 cases, smaller was better provided you could buy and carry more than 1 beer back to your seat.

The further the difference in price between large and small, the more likely the value lies in two small vs. one large.

So when you're in line or deciding about different sizes for pizza, beer, or whatever is on the menu, you'll have to do a bit of math to figure out the best value scenario. If you take these tips, and ask yourself if two small is a better deal than one large, you'll make smarter food and drink decisions and getting better value for your buck.

Super Bowl XLVIII food ad analysis

Food commercials were aplenty in last night's Super Bowl XLVIII in East Rutherford, New Jersey. But which ones stood out?

Oikos yogurt got the hype for a "Full House" male reunion. However, that wasn't even the most interesting ad for yogurt. Chobani Greek yogurt gave us a great, creative ad about a selective bear raiding a small-town general store. More interesting and told us something about the product.

The biracial Cheerios kid made a return, this time using Cheerios to convey to the girl that she is getting a baby brother. Her counteroffer of a puppy was accepted. Didn't tie into the health claims but reinforced the association with Cheerios and family.

I love Stephen Colbert and the pistachios spot fit Colbert's personality. I especially liked the wraparound where the commercial was "interrupted" by a David Beckham H&M ad. Getting 2 mentions really helped. The only drawback was that pistachios played second-fiddle to Colbert, though Colbert splitting open his head amplified what pistachios are all about.

Previous coverage:

Temptation of the Week: Making your own soft drinks

Super Bowl ad wrapup: 'Ad' for farmers topped the list

Super Bowl Monday morning ad analysis: PepsiMax signifies jealousy, violence more than diet

Butterfinger was the solution to chocolate and peanut butter being in therapy. I thought the ad was for Reeses at first, but that was the point as Butterfinger is trying to be an alternative. I hadn't associated Butterfinger with peanut butter; the company is hoping for $4 million that consumers will give that a try.

Subway is offering a sandwich with Fritos in the sandwich. There was a Fritos chicken enchilada sandwich and a Fritos pulled pork sandwich. You can get Fritos with a sandwich and put them on your own sandwich. Wish Subway would concentrate more on better tasting bread and better looking vegetables on their sandwiches.

To be fair, Subway talks about its sandwiches. I'm still amazed that Jimmy John's makes sandwiches and never talks about what's in them. Equating Jimmy John's with roses for an anniversary would have made for a great parody if someone else produced the ad. This was a wasted $4 million.

Doritos ran two ads: Time Machine and a kid riding a dog. The theme of Doritos being bold was reinforced. The Time Machine ad was definitely better, but both spots were very visual. When you're watching at a party or a bar, you want visual ads where the words don't matter. The visuals were more important in these ads.

Heinz ketchup ran a cute ad about how Heinz makes you happy enough to clap your hands. The classic bottle also ran as a theme; grandma uses a squeeze bottle and makes an unfortunate noise inferred to be flatulence. Funny after pushing the squeeze bottle as convenience, Heinz went a bit retro with the glass bottle. If only Heinz would go truly retro and ditch high-fructose corn syrup.

M&Ms had an Italian stereotype about chopping someone into pieces and then sprinkling that … over ice cream. Turns out the peanut M&M was in the trunk and doesn't understand Italian. The candy company has done a lot better; your Super Bowl ad shouldn't make consumers cringe and wish for your less expensive ads in comparison.

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Drinks aren't really food, but we'll take a brief look at the spots.

The lovely Scarlet Johansson talked up Sodastream. The company teased an alternative ad with a tagline attacking Coke and Pepsi. Sodastream knew the ad wouldn't make it to the Super Bowl, but put it out there to attract more attention.

Johansson attracted more attention to a controversy involving Oxfam and settlements in the Middle East. Funny how Sodastream is running against Coke and Pepsi, but won't make alternative syrups to satisfy that audience.

Coca-Cola ran 2 ads: one with different languages singing America the Beautiful and a kid running a TD all the way to Lambeau Field in Green Bay. The football one tied in well with the game but not the product. And the international voices remind us they every country outside the United States and Canada has a better version of Coca-Cola.

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Full disclosure: my day job did not run an ad in Super Bowl XLVIII, but has run an ad in recent years.

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video credits: Chobani, Cheerios, countournuts.com

What's Tempting: Healthy Super Bowl Sunday

Healthy snacking on Super Bowl Sunday is tempting, but not terribly practical. In a large group, watching some of these snacks advertised during the big game, recovering from 2 polar vortices (vortexes?), and winding down on a Sunday night — this can lead to non-healthy snack decisions.

If you are living in a home state of one of the Super Bowl participants, snacking temptation is even worse since you can smoke marijuana legally in those states (insert Doritos joke here).

Previous coverage:

Temptation of the Week: Create a distinct Super Bowl feast

Temptation of the Week: Resisting temptation to gorge on Super Bowl Sunday

Of course, one evening of nachos and other snacks won't do much harm. And if you've been good lately, sure, why not take a night of "fun."

Fun doesn't have to mean eating processed snacks, but again, peer pressure does make an impact.

If you want to avoid these temptations, here are some options that could offset that Monday Morning Quarterback uneasy feeling.

• Guacamole. That is usually what people think of when trying to come up with a healthy snack for Super Bowl Sunday. And get some of those blue corn chips to go with the guacamole, or boil some eggs and use the egg whites to hold some guacamole.
• Hummus makes for a nice alternative dip to guacamole.
• Spinach artichoke dip is a good option if it's more about the vegetables than the dip. Fat-free yogurt can cut the calories while Greek yogurt adds the fiber.
• You could eat well the rest of the weekend and leave Sunday night for some snacks.
• Fiber and lots of it. Have oatmeal or something high in fiber for lunch, so you won't feel as hungry.
• Celery. Let's not kid ourselves: celery isn't fun. You see celery with Buffalo wings but you don't see people eating the celery. With the great dips, celery sticks are a good way to get the dip into your mouth.
• Drink lots of water. You'll feel more full. Drinking American beer may be like drinking water, but that doesn't count.
• Frozen fruit, especially blueberries or strawberries. Super Bowl Sunday is mostly about salty rather than sweet. But berries on top of Greek yogurt with a little honey or maple syrup can be fun and healthy and filling.
• Go nuts with nuts. Eating nuts adds protein and fiber.
• Popcorn. No microwave crap. Cook your own with a popcorn popper or put some kernels in a paper bag in a microwave oven. Use spice rather than butter to add flavor. Cayenne pepper is a great cheese. Garlic is wonderful.
• Healthy cereal. Set out a bowl of healthy cereal. Watching the game involves mindless munching, so if you something healthy and fun, you might not even remember what you ate an hour ago.

You get over a thousand meals in a year. If you've been good lately, one meal won't make much of a difference. If you haven't been good lately, these tips might make your dips that much better for you in the long run.

Farm Bill split opens doors to frank food stamps discussion

The GOP-led House passed a Farm Bill that took food stamps out of the picture. The Republicans want to take up food stamps in a separate bill. Later.

Liberals and progressives don't like this move because they fear what will happen to food stamps if dealt with separately. Their fears are justified about the potential loss of food stamps.

We've had more consecutive bad Farm Bills than the Pittsburgh Pirates have had losing seasons (20 straight years). The Pirates have an extremely good chance at ending that string in 2013. Farm Bill? Not so much.

Splitting the Farm Bill and separating out the elements can start a desperately needed dialogue about the American farm and food strategy.

We need to stop having pretend conversations about Cadillac welfare queens and iPod wearing people laughing about using food stamps. We need to start having real conversations about the 80% of people on food stamps who are working, and finding out more about the 20% who aren't able to work who are getting help.

Separating food stamps from the Farm Bill is a dangerous risk to food stamps. But the split might get us to start having a real conversation about food help.

Speaking of pretend conversations, we hear that the Farm Bill subsidizes regular farmers in case their crops don't do as well as expected. The vast majority of this part of the Farm Bill goes to "farmers" who have plenty, many of whom are getting paid not to grow. We are also paying farmers who are farming to grow tons of corn and soybeans (most of which is GMO), most of which we don't need and is doing damage to our soil.

We're told that supporting food stamps raises the deficit and produces dependency. Well, the reality of helping those who don't need help is they get more help and get the money for longer, so they are more dependent.

So we like the idea of paying farmers, but not the kind of paying that struggling farmers really could use.

Conservatives hate food stamps with a unnatural zeal. Even when they're told that food stamps have a small margin of abuse (much less than subsidies for the rich farmers) or that food stamps help out the community by encouraging direct spending, they don't care.

They are upset at President Barack Obama because more people are on food assistance than when the last guy was in charge. There are two good reasons: 1) the crash of the economy (caused by their actions) and 2) trying to offer assistance to those who need it. But again, facts can't slow down their anger toward food stamps.

Food stamps get bashed because they are invisible yet when you see the results, they make a better community for such a small investment.

So we have a pool of money, some for farmers and some for those who eat food. We want to spend the money wisely but still help those who want a better food process. We want liberals to be happy, but conservatives too, if they can be happy.

-- We give money to farmers, but actual real farmers who are doing the right thing, but are struggling.

-- Some of that money comes through vouchers for those people who need food assistance to spend in farmers markets, CSAs, or other direct methods to farmers. We have to spend money (short-term) to educate people that they can use this option.

-- For this part of the food stamps program, we haven't given a cent to the poor people, but we have given money to the farmers. The farmers who really need help. And we haven't given any money directly to the farmers, so far.

Local small farmers are happier since they are getting help in the best way: getting money for their crop. No paying farmers not to farm, but them getting money for farming.

Those on food assistance who have access to farmers markets can get great produce to supplement their food supply.

A strong system that matches the two parties together doesn't involve huge amounts of red tape or bureaucracy. The exchange of food and vouchers is all done on a local level and keeps money within the community.

In some areas, people receiving food assistance can get food at farmers markets, but some seed money (pun intended) would jumpstart that to a much broader level.

This suggestion only solves a portion of the food problem in this country. Some don't have easy access to farmers or farmers markets and this won't help out others who need more than just good produce.

Raising wages help people be able to afford the basic necessities of life. And while the truly rich has recovered from the depressive recession of 2008, most people's wages, especially the working poor, haven't kept up.

The Dems could put together a comprehensive bill noting several factors to lift boats so people can better afford access to food. Yes, the Dems aren't in power in the House, but they could take a lesson from the parliamentary system and offer an alternative so voters can see what they would do if the Dems were put back in charge.

But even with all of those bills and proposals, people in this country will still need food assistance. SNAP, food stamps, vouchers — whatever the name, they will still need help. And every private source and food bank out there combined can't make a dent in the problem.

Worried about money? Already saving plenty by not paying rich people to sit on their butts. Worried about dependency? We already have a system where people are ashamed or scared to use what they have a legitimate right to have? Worried about welfare queens? Well, you should be as scared of welfare queens as you are of the Sharknado.

Slider Bites: China not the only problem with Smithfield Foods

You should be worried about the potential of a takeover of Smithfield Foods by a Chinese company. Then again, if that is your only worry, you should be paying more attention.

The primary worry last week was the impact that potentially lower standards would have on the U.S. food supply. But consumers should be even more concerned about how few U.S. companies control the vast majority of the meat supply.

Smithfield and the other companies that dominate the meat industry are, to coin a tired phrase, “too big to fail.” The cost of failure is even larger when our food supply is concerned.

The Chinese offer may be more about feeding those in China. Still, this offer gives us a chance to see if the United States “anything goes” policy includes a foreign takeover.

The United States food policy is no food policy. There is no long-term thinking or strategy for food production, health, and integrity. As much as some would like to bury their heads in the sand about how our food is grown, companies are in charge of growing most of our food. And those companies can be bought or sold with foreign or domestic buyers.

Even if the Chinese bid is not approved, we shouldn't breathe sighs of relief yet. But this should start the conversation about a national food policy.

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Internal pressure to come up with a sane food policy hasn't been terribly effective. However, outside pressure may be the answer to securing positive change. The U.S. may not care what its citizens eat, but the government cares about selling its food to other countries.

Japan halted a bid on 27,500 tons of Pacific Northwest wheat after a rogue genetically engineered strain was found on an Oregon farm. Other countries/organizations expressing concern include South Korea, the European Union, and Taiwan.

Other countries outside NAFTA want to make sure the food they are getting is GMO-free. Canada and Mexico would likely want their food to be GMO-free, but as we've seen with NAFTA, the dominant country sets the tone. And if those countries aren't sure about what they're getting, the U.S. can't ship as much food overseas as it wants.

Too bad California, Illinois, and Massachusetts can't set the same standards as Japan and South Korea.

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McDonald's came out and admitted what we suspected. No, not that. Not that. And definitely not that. No, the fast food chain admitted that their salads comprised a small percentage of sales.

We like to feel better about fast food places when they offer “healthier” choices. Then again, McD's tried really hard to cram unnecessary calories and fat (e.g., candied walnuts) into its salads, making them less desirable.

We don't ask Panera to make us a greasy burger and cold soggy fries. Sometimes, restaurants are just better off trying to be good (relatively speaking) at what they do, and not try at something where they are destined to fail.

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If I had a time machine and a functioning Flip camera, I would want to be Zachary Maxwell.

Maxwell made a film about how horrible his school lunches were. Maxwell also wanted to convince his parents that the school was not delivering on promised meals.

Maxwell almost lost a day's worth of footage after he got caught and was told he needed to delete the footage. Being a typical 4th grader, he convinced the teacher that he erased the footage, but he really didn't.

Maxwell is showing his film at the Manhattan Film Festival. I would have settled for a private screening for my parents to show them how horrible my school lunches really were. Bad school lunches that were reheated since the elementary school had no kitchen. At 10 years old, I would have loved the lunches Maxwell was rejecting. Sans proof, I couldn't convince my parents as to what I was getting. Maxwell doesn't have that problem.

Taste of Spring 2013 Canadian food ads via NHL Center Ice

We normally expect a bunch of Tim Horton commercials when we get a peek into the world of Canadian food ads.

But we didn't see any new Tim Horton ads in this latest stretch.

We only got the preview that paralleled the beginning of the MLB season, and not the end of the NHL season this week.

The coolest ad involved beer, which isn't technically food. (For more, check out the full version from our sister blog, CanadianCrossing.com.)

There was fast food news in the mix. Let's check in with the column from CanadianCrossing.com with more:

 

In fast food news, Harvey's was pushing a 4-cheese burger with Monterey Jack, cheddar, gouda, and swiss.

Americans like the idea of 4 cheeses on a burger, but might make "safer" choices. I'd be curious to see if gouda would make a top 10 list.

KFC is adapting its Big Crunch sandwich to be a Big Crunch Tower. The regular sandwich is a extra crispy breast with lettuce and mayonnaise sauce.

Mayonnaise sauce sounds even less healthy than mayo.

The Big Crunch Tower adds ketchup, cheese, and a hash brown patty. In case you weren't getting even carbohydrates.

Ketchup, even if Canadian ketchup is usually better, should never go on a chicken sandwich. And mayonnaise sauce sounds depressing. Not sure that cheese even belongs on that sandwich, though some cheeses go well with chicken.

Crunchy hash browns on a crunchy chicken sandwich is overdoing it on carbs, but we've heard worse. Not sure I'll make a road trip for that sandwich.

photo credit: KFC Canada

Temptation of the Week: Soft foods

Soft foods aren't normally tempting. When you break a tooth, and you have a temporary crown in your mouth, you aren't craving soft foods out of desire but necessity.

Going soft for a day or a few days isn't so bad, but two weeks can be nerve-wracking.

Spaghetti turned out to be a nice option. My recent obsession with olives helped. Cutting a hamburger in two is a lot better when you are limited to eating out of one side of your mouth.

Like most people, I had cans of tuna fish sitting in the pantry, so using them up killed more than one bird. Then again, they stayed in the pantry because I struggled to find good uses for them. Tuna salad can only go so far.

Yogurt, Greek or regular, was soft, low in fat, and had plenty of protein. Even putting foods in yogurt can be only so exciting.

Now that I have a permanent crown in my mouth, I realize I left out some crucial soft foods, such as rice. How did I not fix rice in that two weeks?

Soft foods aren't bad, but eating soft foods out of one side of my mouth grew annoying and frustrating. Eating soft foods with a full mouth would be better.

I thought back to high school when a female classmate of mine had her jaw wired shut to fix her smile. She would have killed for soft foods when all she could consume was through a straw. Perspective makes all the difference.

The screaming temptation was to have crunchy foods, the foods you specifically aren't supposed to have — funny how life works that way. French fries are softer than potato chips. Having this period during Super Bowl Sunday meant no nachos, pretzels, chips, or anything else that goes CRUNCH!.

Smoothies, puddings — can't live two weeks on them but they can handle part of the load. I did have applesauce that was going to eventually go bad; a sprinkle of cinnamon and I had a serving of fruit. In summertime, the lack of fresh fruit would have made me very sad. The blueberries from last summer will last a couple weeks longer in the freezer.

Battling with soft foods can depend on your overall approach to food. Stir-frys and Pad Thai have a certain softness. Rice and noodles become your best friends, though I stuck to noodles.

Eating soft diminishes my desire for eating out. Maybe this is because having others watch me eat and chew out of one side of my mouth is not something I wish on complete strangers.

I wasn't the kind of soul to chomp on an apple. I do like hearty breads (really unfortunate since I cracked the tooth while eating a piece of hearty bread. While I don't blame the food for the cracked tooth, I am easing back into having the hearty bread again.

Being stuck in this kind of a pattern makes you appreciate being able to eat what you can when you can. Volunteering to go this route might seem pointless, but you do learn a lesson or two about food appreciation and what attracts us to certain foods where our teeth are much more involved.